Eien - The Black Hole

He walks back to the Lavender Dreams B&B feeling good.  With a polite bow and good night to the desk clerk, he climbs the stairs to his room and slips out of his shoes just inside the door.  But before he takes off his sweater, he gets his laptop and publishes the video he'd made before he left and begins another recording.

“Konbanwa!  It is Eien and this is  Gaijin. Gaman shiro.”  he begins as he always does, although the alcohol in his system and his exhaustion make his English a bit worse than usual.  His Japanese accent is almost heavy.  "Back from my trip to the Black Hole on Cedar Point Island in Canada."  he is 'home' and it is the place he cal allow his 'private face' to show.  Pinching the bridge of his nose, he smiles.  "A very nice place.  The beer was not the best, but it was not the very worse, either.  Maybe next time I will ask for something even better.  The bartender, Megan-san, was very helpful to me.  She was very nice and pretty as well.  Not at all a scary clown."

Eien pauses and considers his words.  "They do things very different here in Canada.  Maybe it is all of the West, I don't know.  But it was god to meet someone to speak to.  Of course, she is the bartender, so it is in her interest to be nice to everyone.  I know this from my work as sushi chef.  But she gave me a card so I could get a latte at the Dandelion Cafe.  I will go there tomorrow and I will tell you all about it.  I only had one beer, but I am still very tired from my flight and need to go to sleep as soon as I upload this video.  So, oyasumi nasai my viewers.  Until next time this has been Eien and this is  Gaijin. Gaman shiro."

He stops the recording and quickly edits it, then uploads it, remembering his first outing in the West.

Eien Fumetsu arrives at The Black Hole and enters. He checks his coat in with the pretty girl and pockets the stub. Then he walks in, looking around at all of the people. He is still feeling a bit jet lagged, but he didn't want to stay in his room at the inn and do nothing all night .. it was bad enough he'd slept a solid fourteen hours. He moves to the end of the bar and nods to a young woan with light chocolate skin drinking from a brown bottle. He sits on one of the stools and looks around, curiously. It's a bar ... a club .. they had them in Osaka. No big deal...

Megan Douglas looks sideways at the newcomer as he approaches, her eyes following him until he's seated before her. She steps forward one half step and leans lightly on the bar with a little smile "What'll it be then?"

Eien Fumetsu watches the woman approaching him and considers her question. "A good beer?" he asks, his accent shining through. Good English but obviously with a Japanese accent he can't get rid of. "I .. do not know what would be a good one. Can you help me?"

Megan Douglas giggles "Well they do call me a bartender. Rocket Fuel is the local microbrew. It's a lager if you like that sort of thing." She waits for his response but looks like a few questions are running through her brain.

Eien Fumetsu replies with a "Sou desu ka." when she tells him of one of the brews. "Rocketa Fuel?" he intones. "It sounds .. " he pauses, going through the possible words in his head and not rushing himself. "Very big .. strong?" he wonders. "I do not want to get drunk quickly." he tells her. He doesn't want to get drunk at all .. not jet lagged and only having explored a little bit of the island.

Megan Douglas grabs a bottle from under the counter and uses the bottom of her tank top as a tool to help her unscrew the cap. Cheekily she says "So drink slow. Where are you from anyway?" she sets the beer down in front of him.

Eien Fumetsu watches her use her shirt to uncap the bottle with slightly raised brows, hiding his ... shock? "Doumo arigatu gozaimasu." he thanks her and answers her question with. "Osaka." he doesn't want to assume she doesn't know i is in Japan. He sips and nods. To him its not the best .. but it isn't the worst either. "Ah is good." he says, not complimenting .. not insulting. Polite. Neutral.

Megan Douglas tilts her head thinking for a moment and then bends down and grabs herself a beer too, unscrewing the cap the same way again and then tossing the cap in a bin behind her and taking a long swig. After swallowing she asks bluntly "Osaka, Japan? Were you BORN there?"

Eien Fumetsu nods. "Hai .. Osaka, Japan." he watches her drink, which doesn't happen where he is from. "I was born in San Fernando, Trinidad. My parents moved to Osaka when I was seven years old." he shrugs. "So that is why my accent is more Japanese than my parents." he nods to her a bit.

Megan Douglas's expression shows it's making much more sense now "Cool. I could have learned Japanese in school here. There's lots of Japanese people here but I decided to flunk French instead. So are you just here on a trip then?" She knocks back another huge sip like it's a glass of plain water and then puts her beer down on the bar in front of her.

Eien Fumetsu smiles. "Ah so desu ka. Anata wa nihongo wo hanashimasu ka?" he had not expected to find anyone except for his employers speaking Japanese. But he is in Rome, so he will speak as the Romans do. "I never learned French. Only enough to take orders from customers in the sushi bar I worked in in Osaka." he admits. As my parents spoke English, I .. always knew it? But I lost my Trinidad accent in school. They sent me to a Japanese speaking school." he blows out a breath and takes another sip of the beer. "That is how I learned it. English."

Megan Douglas makes a face "Yeah it's our other "official language". I mean it's great if you want to work for the government I guess but if I had to sit behind a desk all day I'd fuckin die. I mean really "Press one for bullshit in English, press deux pour merdre de vache en Francais.....you know or something like that right?"

Eien Fumetsu has seen plenty of women drink as heavy as this woman did, although the Japanese women tended to not ... flaunt it. Not in public. Not 'ladies' ... but 'ladies' weren't always a lot of fun. He sips again and sets the bottle down, his hand lingering as she speaks. Her swearing definitely gets his attention. "So desu ka. I know enough to ask them what they would like. The menu items, of course, are already in Japanese." he pauses and looks not quite at her. "Namae wa nandesu ka?" he asks, in Japanese, wondering if she forgot hat she'd learned in school or if she still occasionally uses her Japanese.

Megan Douglas frowns "Are you offering me sushi? Here's how much Japanese I know....Negi toro maki.....futomaki......tekka...sake.......Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto." She smirks and then poises about to sip, waiting for a reaction.

Eien Fumetsu laughs at her reply. "I asked what is your name." he tells her and chuckles, remembering the old old song about Mr Roboto. It is better for me to speak English here. My French is too bad."

Megan Douglas nods "Most people in BC don't speak French well at all. Gotta go East for that. My name is Megan. What's yours?"

Eien Fumetsu continues his smile .. a nice one. "I am Eien Fumetsu." he takes out his card out of purely ingrained habit and offers it to her. "It is good to know you, Megan-san." he bows slightly on the stool.

Megan Douglas takes the card "Dude, you're hard core eh?" She bows back just a smidge to be polite and then pretends to pad her pockets "I don't have cards...oh wait....." She pulls out a coffee stamp card for the Dandelion cafe "Here, 2 stamps to a free latte!" She slides it across the bar.

Eien Fumetsu laughs a little again. "My father told me always to act like Japanese business man even though I am a sushi chef." he looks at the card and takes it. "Doumo ariigatou, Megan-san." he picks it up and nods. "I have seen this place. I will have a latte there tomorrow." he promises.

Megan Douglas glances down at his card again "I love sushi. Have you been to Sakuras? It's our local place. Run by the Yamada family."

Eien Fumetsu is taking another drink as she speaks to him. "I have been hired as a part-time sushi chef at Sakura. Yamada-san and I have spoken many times over the phone for interviews." he means the wife, not the husband, but doesn't mention this, knowing MR Yamada has been ill and Eien doesn't want to shame him intentionally.

Megan Douglas nods with a curious expression "Oh I didn't know they were hiring....Funny Garrett and Ryan didn't say anything. Course last time I saw them they were kinda shitfaced. Occupational hazard really."

Eien Fumetsu shrugs slightly. "It is possible it is because I am Gaijin .. or because my employer in Osaka knew I was looking to move from Japan. Or they were trying to save my face." he places the reasons on his own status as a gaijin. "You would see many people drunk here, I imagine."

Megan Douglas finishes her beer and then gestures at his bottle "Yeah. another?" She puts her empty in a box with others "Last weekend was the big V. We had a lot of depressed people in here drinking their heartbreaks away. Awesome for sales and fucking horrible to work at the same time."

Eien Fumetsu thinks a moment and shakes his head. "I'm only half done with this one." he declines the second beer, bu drinks a bit. "The big V?" he mururs and then the light dawns. "Ahhhh Valentine's Day. Why would they be depressed?" he wonders, realizing how little he knows about Western ways when he thought he had known it all.

Megan Douglas shrugs "People get all hung up on that crap. I could care less, happier when I'm single anyway. I shouldn't be such a bitch about it though. Whatever floats your boat right?"

Eien Fumetsu considers and thinks it may be deeper. "In Japan, women give men chocolate or a small gift .. friends, co-workers, someone they like or owe. You do not have to be in a relationship to get a choco." he cants his head slightly, the beer relaxing him. "It is different here. I will send some marshmallows or white choco in March for what I got on ... V-day." he uses her term for the holiday.

Megan Douglas raises a brow and grins "It's always the polite ones. How many women back home do you owe treats to then Eien?" She asks teasingly "Or men...no assumptions."

Eien Fumetsu shrugs. "My regular customers at the sushi bar and friends. I ..." he pauses, blushing although she may not see it between the dark bar and his skin tone. "Hot man ... on White Day the gift would be worth two or three times what I received." he cans his had. I did get some from men ..." he seems to ponder that a moment or two. Did it mean something or was he just some mens favorite sushi chef?

Megan Douglas laughs "Hot man on white day? Go Japan! I'm just teasing. Sometimes "gifts" from customers can be kinda fucked up. What's the strangest tip you've ever gotten?"

Eien Fumetsu chuckles. "Maybe I will break tradition and give you, the first woman I met in Canada, some white choco for White Day, even though you gave me nothing." he teases in his turn and drinks a bit more as he considers his V-Day gifts. "Two years ago, someone came into the sushi bar and gave me a small box on V-day. I was busy so I did not open it, but inside of it was choco, a ten thousand yen note and a key." he winces slightly. "But I did not know who gave it to me."

Megan Douglas laughs "Dude I gave you an almost full coffee card! That's like creepy spy shit...like they were paying you off for some mission! That's epic. The funniest I got was this weird little old man gave me a clown doll. "I saw this and I thought of you." he said. It honestly looked kind of psycho horror movie. Mys sister and I used it to prank each other until the head fell off."

Eien Fumetsu laughs. "Very true! Maybe I will give you something for White Day regardless." he smiles and chuckles. "Well, maybe it was a beautiful person and the key was to their home. But I never knew who the giver was, so maybe that is the best. I never worked in a host club or anything like that. Some men would take money but .. I don't know for myself." he arches both brows. "That is very weird." he shudders a bit. "Like Japanese horror movie stuff." he shakes his head, thinking about it.

Megan Douglas laughs breathily and then makes her fingers crawl across the bar at him "Make balloon animals with me in the woods my pretty....."

Eien Fumetsu snorts, but doesnt move his hand. "Maybe for ten thousand yen at noon." he replies with a chuckle.

Megan Douglas pulls her hand back, running it through her hair casually "And the key...that's the interesting part in your story. Damn we're getting close to last call here. It's been fun talking to you Eien. I hope you like the town and stick around."

Eien Fumetsu smiles and finished his beer. "How much is it?" he wonders. "And a pleasure to meet you, Megan-san."

Megan Douglas smiles " Four bucks even please."

Eien Fumetsu stands and reaches into his jeans for his wallet, pulling out Canadian money, whih he exchanged before leaving Japan. He pays and leaves a fifty percent tip. "Arigatou gozaimashita, Megan-san and oyasumi nasai. Good night." he bows relatively deeply to her and heads for the door, if she doesn't stop him.

Megan Douglas looks down at the cash "Thanks you too....watch out for headless clowns!" she calls after.